EEF chief medical adviser, Dr Sayeed Khan, told Personnel Today: “We need more resources to allow faster access to therapies and treatments. The NHS is not very good at dealing with members of the working-age population.

“The most common complaints are stress and back pain. It would be fantastic to have physiotherapy centres nearer workplaces, such as on business parks, for example.”

The EEF survey of 625 member organisations, covering 127,585 employees, also showed the benefits of managing sickness absence.

Four in 10 companies that trained their managers on the issue reported a decrease in all types of sickness absence, compared with 26% of companies with no such training.